In the 1980s, computers got good enough to display fractal patterns to the home audience. James Gleick put out Chaos at about the right time, for the PC-Jr. In mid 1990 I figured out how to render some of these for the school Nimbus (remember that?). We're here to talk the Hilbert tasselation.
Hilbert rendered your 1D array into a 2D spacefilling curve. It is, or maybe was, considered superior to the usual x + y*maxx mapping since proximity in the array would approximate proximity in the mapped plane, also. Hilbert himself used the square grid; Gosper's flowsnake does it for the hexagonal beehive.
In 1984 Antonin Guttman invented the R-tree, which indexes multidimensional objects: "find bookstores within two miles". Hilbert gained a real lease on life here. To be noted, I think technically Gosper is better out of doors, as a wilderness map.
Hilbert's classic square, rather, has use in human-visualising the nature of 1D data. It also compresses images and/or dithers them.
BACKDATE 9.26
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